London: Oil extended losses as Saudi Arabia was said to be ahead of schedule in restoring its output capacity.

Futures lost as much as 1.5 per cent in New York after dropping 2.3 per cent on Tuesday. Saudi Aramco’s production capacity now exceeds 11 million barrels a day, beating a self-imposed deadline by about a week, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The Abqaiq processing plant has 4.92 million barrels a day of capacity available and Khurais 1.3 million, they said.

Aerial strikes on the two plants on Sept. 14 disabled 5 per cent of global crude supply, driving crude higher by the most on record. Prices have pulled back since as Aramco — formally known as Saudi Arabian Oil Co. — has promised it will return all lost production by the end of this month. A gloomy global economic outlook and weakening oil demand growth has also pushed oil lower.

West Texas Intermediate for November delivery dropped 79 cents, or 1.4 per cent, to $56.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 9:18am. London time. Brent for November slipped $1.04, or 1.7 per cent, to $62.06 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange, and traded at a $5.53 premium to WTI.

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